.TH std::experimental::filesystem::read_symlink 3 "2024.06.10" "http://cppreference.com" "C++ Standard Libary"
.SH NAME
std::experimental::filesystem::read_symlink \- std::experimental::filesystem::read_symlink

.SH Synopsis
   Defined in header <experimental/filesystem>
   path read_symlink( const path& p );                  (filesystem TS)
   path read_symlink( const path& p, error_code& ec );

   If the path p refers to a symbolic link, returns a new path object which refers to
   the target of that symbolic link.

   It is an error if p does not refer to a symbolic link.

   The non-throwing overload returns an empty path on errors.

.SH Parameters

   p  - path to a symlink
   ec - out-parameter for error reporting in the non-throwing overload

.SH Return value

   The target of the symlink (which may not necessarily exist).

.SH Exceptions

   The overload that does not take an error_code& parameter throws filesystem_error on
   underlying OS API errors, constructed with p as the first argument and the OS error
   code as the error code argument. std::bad_alloc may be thrown if memory allocation
   fails. The overload taking an error_code& parameter sets it to the OS API error code
   if an OS API call fails, and executes ec.clear() if no errors occur. This overload
   has
   noexcept specification:
   noexcept


.SH Example


// Run this code

 #include <experimental/filesystem>
 #include <iostream>
 namespace fs = std::experimental::filesystem;

 int main()
 {
     // on a typical Linux system, /lib/libc.so.6 is a symlink
     fs::path p = "/lib/libc.so.6";
     if (exists(p) && is_symlink(p))
         std::cout << p << " -> " << read_symlink(p) << '\\n';
     else
         std::cout << p << " does not exist or is not a symlink\\n";
 }

.SH Possible output:

 "/lib/libc.so.6" -> "libc-2.12.so"

.SH See also

   is_symlink               checks whether the argument refers to a symbolic link
                            \fI(function)\fP
   create_symlink           creates a symbolic link
   create_directory_symlink \fI(function)\fP
   copy_symlink             copies a symbolic link
                            \fI(function)\fP
   status                   determines file attributes
   symlink_status           determines file attributes, checking the symlink target
                            \fI(function)\fP

.SH Categories:
     * Noindexed pages
     * unconditionally noexcept
.SH Hidden categories:
     * Pages with unreviewed unconditional noexcept template
     * Pages with unreviewed noexcept template
